Game 2 was MUCH better than Game 1 for us Yankee fans. They won 3-1. Way to go Yanks!! The night didn’t start out so great for me though. But what’s the saying? “All’s well that ends well”?It definitely ended well.

This is just how great my night started…. My hubby had a business meeting after work. Of course, it lasted waaay longer than he expected it to. He thought he’d be home in time for us to watch, or at least listen, to the start of the game together. NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

Before the game started I was watching the pre-game show. I checked to see if our FOX channel had somehow miraculously landed in our tv. Not happening either. The FCC drives me INSANE I tell you!!!! So there I am getting my AM radio ready. Ugh. I tuned it in upstairs and it was surprisingly clear. I was so excited!

Then I turned on another radio downstairs so that I could hear the game wherever I was in the house.

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE AM RADIO IN STEREO, baby!

It was all good until the first pitch, don’tcha know. Then the obnoxious wavey, whiney sounds were back. I can’t win! I listened a while longer hoping it would work itself out. When I would walk by the radio, the reception was almost perfect. Well, as perfect as AM can get. So I decided I would just sit on the floor by the radio. Once I sat down, I had to keep moving it around to keep the reception. Soon even that went to hell in a hand basket. What little patience I had left was quickly leaving my body. On a jet plane.

I waved the white flag, turned off the radios, and turned ESPN back on to keep up with the score. This went on through the third inning. Then finally, FINALLY, hubby calls and says he’s on his way. I’m griping to him about the same ol’, same ol’ no FOX channel stuff, yadda, yadda, yadda…. He said he’d be home in 5 minutes and to get ready to go watch the game at our just-across-the-Pennsylvania-border-redneck-bar hang out. It was getting late by this time and I told him I hated for us to be out so late when he needed to get up early for work. Get this, he said “I’d rather be tired tomorrow than to put up with you being grumpy tonight”. ~GASP~ (He did say it in a nice way though.) I said “Ok, I won’t be grumpy anymore. I won’t say another word about it”. He said “Honey, I’ve known you long enough, you don’t have to say anything for me to know you’re grumpy.” OUCH!! But he was right. The truth hurts.

So off we go across the border into PHILLIES territory. See, I told you he’s my knight. He saved me once again from a miserable night of not getting to see our Yankees. This time we drank White Russians and Grey Goose martinis to mix it up a bit. The player’s superstitions must be wearing off onto the fans. (The martini was an inspiration from my BRO1-my oldest brother- having one at a party during my nephew’s wedding weekend. The martini was AWE-SOME!) A lady showed up at the bar wearing a decked out pirates costume, ginormous hat included. She pulled out her sword and was banging it on the bar while yelling LOUDLY for her Phillies.

AWK-WAAARD!

Despite her tirade, her Phillies lost and OUR YANKEES WON! This is all going according to plan to bring our Yankees home for Game 5.

that my Yankees lost their first game in the WORLD SERIES 2009. What can I say, the Phillies had a great pitcher.

Hubs and I went to our most favorite restaurant, Moxie’s. We sat at the end of the bar with the game on right in front of our faces. AWESOME! We were having a great time. We were eating the most wonderful appetizer EVER MADE ON THIS PLANET- Firecracker Shrimp. Mmm-Mmm-DELICIOUS!! and drinking the best beer ever brewed- Rare Vos, which is from Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY. We went for a tour and tasting at the brewery this past summer. They are very generous with their samples, by the way. They even did 2nds! Very cool.

Anyway, back to my story….

So there we were, having a great time, eating great food, drinking great beer, watching a great game. Since we were sitting at the end of the bar, several customers and even WAITERS would stop by and ask us about the game. FUN! Even the old guy rooting for the Phillies was fun to talk to, just not for long. HA!

Then we started falling behind. And then behinder. Ugh. I thought “no worries, it’s still early and we almost ALWAYS come from behind. No need to get my panties in a wad. Yet.”

We closed the joint down. It was only the 5th inning when we left, so we listened to the game on XM Radio on the way home. Then we followed the score on ESPN until we fell asleep at 4-0.

My panties were starting to bunch at this point. Ugh. I hate it when that happens!!

But! Hubs and I decided we wanted the Phillies to win just one of the first five games. WHA?? you say?Yes! Only because we want the Yanks to win the series back at the NEW YANKEES STADIUM!! (For those of you that are not following baseball or the World Series ~GASP~ the first two games are in New York, the next three are in Philly, then the last two, if necessary, are in New York again. The team that wins 4 out of the possible 7 games wins.) Here’s an interesting factoid- The Yanks won the World Series in their first year at the original Yankees Stadium way back in 1923. Cool, huh.

We woke up this morning to learn that we lost 6-1. I guess we’ll just have to cheer a little harder tonight.

When I moved to New York, not only was I missing my boys, my family, and friends, I was missing my Houston Astros too. Astros games aren’t shown up here unless by some stroke of luck they’re playing a northern team. In other words, it just doesn’t happen that often. I still tried to keep up with the Astros game scores, but after a while I let it go to the wayside.

My hubby has ALWAYS been a Yankees fan. Duh!! Once we moved up here and it was baseball season, it was all Yankees. They were on tv almost every night (at the time we lived in town and had cable). On the nights they weren’t playing, they showed an encore presentation of a previous Yankee game. Like I said, it was ALL Yankees. There’s even a channel completely dedicated to the Yankees. It’s the YES channel. Yankees Entertainment Sports. I didn’t mind watching them with my Hubby. It was just like watching a game between two teams that you didn’t care who won, only I cheered for the Yankees for my hubby’s benefit. I wanted them to win for him.

After watching and cheering for them for 3 years, now I want them to win for me. I LOVE the Yankees!! (I know that makes my friends in Texas cringe and probably spout a string of obscenities… sorry) I know all the players by name, by sight, by batting stance. I even know most of their batting averages and home run stats. I became a FREAK. (Hubby and I have started on a quest to go to every Major League Baseball stadium. We have a really great start. One of my favorites though was sitting in the second row behind home plate at Yankee stadium. NICE!)

So now that you know I’m crazy over the Yankees, you’ll understand my dilemma. Since we live so far in the boonies, we don’t get cell signal (we forward our cells to our home number), we don’t get high speed internet, and we don’t get cable. First we had Dish Network satellite tv (and satellite internet) installed because they had an MLB package. (Even with satellite, we still don’t get LOCAL CHANNELS because of the area we’re in. Am I going back in time, or what?) As soon as the installer was finished installing, he told us that the MLB package wasn’t available at that time because of a contract dispute between MLB and Dish Network. That’s a fine time to tell us, Lucille. Of course we had a two year contract with them. Ugh. Dish was hoping and thought that the dispute would be resolved at any time. So we wait, and wait. The Yankee games that did come on during the season on regular channels were BLACKED OUT in our area. We were able to see the 4 or 5 Sunday night Yankee games on ESPN though. Weren’t we lucky??!? Yeah, good times.

But that was last season. A year into our Dish contract, we find out that DirecTV had an MLB package that was alive and well and could be in our living room. Yes! Finally! We sign up with DirecTV and their MLB package. That means we had FOUR satellite dishes in our yard and TWO satellite provider bills (we still had internet with Dish). We didn’t care though. We were so excited at the thought of Derek Jeter in our home 5-6 nights a week this season. Well, maybe that was just me for that part, but you get the idea. The season is going along fine, the Yankees are winning, etc. Then some of the games are still blacked out in our zip code because we live too close. Two and half hours away? Seriously? Do “they” really think we live close enough to go to all the games? It just so happens that some of the games that we couldn’t see on the MLB package, we were able to see on the YES channel. If none of that worked, we went to Maloney’s, our local red-neck-bar hang out just across the Pennsylvania border.Now that the regular season is over, the Yankees are in the playoffs. YEA!! The first round of all the playoff games were on TBS. That’s awesome, because we get TBS. We got to see ALL the first-round games, both the American League and the National League. Nice!

Now that the Yankees have moved on to the second round of playoffs, they’re playing on Fox. We don’t get Fox, since it’s a local channel. The other playoff games are on TBS. The Yankee games are the only playoff games on Fox. DirecTV has a channel that has the Yankees games, it’s 721. We don’t get this channel. See where I’m going with this? My hubby calls customer service to subscribe. “No problem. What is your zip code, sir?”. “Oh, I’m sorry, that channel isn’t available in your area due to FCC regulations. Let me see if it’s possible to get a waiver for you on our ‘Networks Package’ since that’s the only channel you want. It’s $2.99 a month per channel”. Great! Sign us up! “I’m sorry, looks like we aren’t able to give a waiver in your area.” Hubs explains our situation, that we just want to be able to watch the Yankees games! “The only other thing I can suggest would be an off-air antenna that would hook up to your receiver for local channels. It’s a one time fee of $106.” Great! Sign us up! How soon can you get here? “We can install the antenna tomorrow morning.” Great! See you then!

Installer shows up, installs the antenna. NO FOX. We aren’t able to get enough signal strength from town. UGH! The installer calls corporate to explain that antenna doesn’t work so that we won’t be charged for it. He also asks if there could be a waiver for the waiver since nothing is working for us. (He also asked for ABC for me so I could watch Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve been having to buy the seasons on ITunes.) After he gets off the phone, I’m all excited since there’s a game on the next night. Then he said it could take up to two weeks for the channel to show up. Ugh again. The next day, which is GAME DAY, I check the channels to see if they’re working. We get ABC. NO FOX. We called DirecTV customer service just to ask about when Fox might be available since ABC had already shown up. “Sir, it could take as long as 45 days.”

IN 45 DAYS, BASEBALL SEASON WILL BE OVER!!

So what do we do? I go find our radio and tune to 630 AM to listen to the game in the kitchen. There’s so much static and wavy sounds that we can’t even tell what’s going on, except for every three words or so. So I think, maybe a different radio with a bigger antenna will work. MORE STATIC. By this time I can’t take it anymore.We have exhausted all our resources. We can’t seem to throw enough money out there just to be able to watch a Yankees game in the comfort of our own living room. It seems to me that all channels should be available on ANY dish. It all comes down to what the FCC says we can and CAN’T HAVE. Why is this so difficult? I thought baseball was supposed to be the national pastime… How is it supposed to be national when certain areas and zip codes -containing some of the most wonderful, die-hard Yankee fans ever-are DELETED, CUT OFF, SKIPPED, PASSED OVER, EXCLUDED, LEFT OUT, NEGLECTED?

Gonna get my coat on…. it’s a cold walk to my hubby’s truck in the driveway. We’re going to turn on the heater and listen to the game on XM Radio. Would you call us desperate? or crazy?

Wait. Don’t answer that!

10-25-09 UPDATE!

An amaaaazing thing happened last night! Fifteen minutes before GAME 6 of the ALCS (American League Championship Series) came on, I checked to see if our Fox Channel was working. I turned to channel 398 and I HEARD VOICES. I SAW MOVING PICTURES.

YES! I was sooo excited! I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to touch anything that might make it go away, just in case it was some fluke thing happening…

So we’re WATCHING THE GAME from the comfort of our very own home, when all of a sudden in the EIGHTH INNING, while our closer is on the mound, our channel goes bye-bye. POOF! just like that!

AAARRRGGHHH!! I got on the phone and called DirecTV to get our channel back! Long story short, all the resets and reboots didn’t work. “Katherine” from DirecTV said she would send the problem to their engineering department and they would take care of it right away.

PPFFFFTT!

Right. Not gonna happen.

Meanwhile, the game is going on and it’s getting close to being over. We are winning 4-1 and I wanted to see who gets the pie in the face from AJ Burnett after we won!

Right. Not gonna happen.I’m sure you can guess what we did next. We put our coats on over our pajamas and headed out to the car. It was 38 degrees outside and almost MIDNIGHT!

It was worth it though. The Yankees won the American League pennant and we’re going to the World Series!! Our only problem now…. the World Series is on FOX. What’s a fan to do??

I’m sure some of you are thinking we’re CRAZY. DESPERATE.

And while some of you may be right, I’d like to call us INSANELY LOYAL.

I picked this book up really cheap at a used book store. I have loved all of Jodi’s books and I hadn’t read this one, so I bought it. Now that I’ve started reading it, I can’t put it down, just like her other book My Sister’s Keeper.

click here for Chapter 1 of Perfect Match. Once you read this, you’ll be running to Barnes & Noble!

WARNING: The topic and descriptions in this book can be disturbing to some. Even with the graphic nature, I couldn’t put it down. What does that tell you about me??!?

Weddings are always special. They’re even more special when it’s someone special in your life that’s getting married.

Special, huh??

Remember when I talked about getting old here? It happened again this past weekend, more specifically, last Saturday night at approximately 5:10 p.m.

Four days before my 16th birthday, my nephew was born. I told you about him here. This past Saturday, he got married. It seems to have happened just that fast. He was born, then he got married.

That’s about how long the ceremony lasted too.Walk up the aisle, say a couple “I do’s”, a giggle here, a smile there, put rings on fingers, kiss the bride, and we were OUTTA THERE! It was short and sweet, and very, very special. A couple tears slid down my face.

I wouldn’t have missed this wedding for the world. Even though the pastor almost did! He had to HITCH a ride from us at almost the last minute, pun intended. Talk about having POWER!! What a way to speak now, or forever hold your peace! Hold the pastor hostage…

But two very special people were ready and waiting. They had been waiting for this day for over a year. Were they nervous? Not about marrying each other. They are probably one of the most perfect couples I’ve ever seen. They are perfect for each other.And if you’ve been following along with my blog, you already know that I think my nephew is perfect. And it’s just like him to pick the perfect wife. I wouldn’t have expected anything less.

Everything was beautiful. The bride and groom, the wedding, the reception, the cakes, the flowers, and yes, even the bridesmaid’s dresses! The music was awesome, even had some Michael Jackson thrown in there. Heee, heee, heeeeee! I felt a tug at my heart during the groom’s dance with his mother.You know it’s coming, here it is…. it was special. A couple tears slid down my face. Watching them dance, I kept thinking “I hope I get that opportunity with WS1 some day”.Ok, I was thinking other things too. Like just how proud I am of my nephew, how I wish I could spend more time around him, and wondering how long I’d have to wait in line for another Crown and Coke.

The best dance came towards the end of the reception when the bride and groom were on the dance floor and we all stood in line to pay to dance with them.And absolutely no stripping was involved. Whoever came up with this idea is a GENIUS!What a way to get your hands on some cold, hard cash.

As the bride and groom were leaving the reception, they ran through a million tiny bubbles, then rode off in a horse drawn carriage. Awwwww!A couple tears slid down my face. My nephew is all grown up.

The whole day was, what can I say, just so special. A special day, a special couple, and many special memories.

Welcome To Yankee Wife.com

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Welcome to YankeeWife! I’m a southern gal who married a Yankee guy and moved from Texas to New York. I’m also a long distance non-custodial mother to 2 teenage boys.
Here I write about my comings and goings from south to north and how I’m finding my way as a long distance mom...
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